Something Out Of Nothing

Furioso Librarian just about finished

2011-07-21T00:39:00.002+01:00

Work is almost done on the Librarian. I have to make a decision on whether to go with the wing icons on the shoulders or not. I'm really not sure yet. Other than that there are a few jobs need doing such as the basing, litanies and I want to add a few more purity seals and scroll cases.

Furioso Librarian

2011-07-16T11:25:00.003+01:00

Now my painting output has increased I think it would be a good time to start getting some pics back in here. It's the best part of a year since I posted but now the Roll With It 40k gaming club is up and running and my painting skills have matured a little I'm again focused on my Space Marines.

For the past year I'm been using my homebrewed chapter using the various Marine books (except for Space Wolves) not particularly in any attempt to gain a tabletop advantage but more the premise and allure of new models and ideas. At the moment I'm gaming with a fairly standard assault marine orientated Blood Angels list. The great thing about the Blood Angels dex is that is offers a few new units that though they fit the typical Space Marine aesthetic they provide the opportunity to try something a little different with conversions or paint. At the moment I'm working on a Furioso Librarian.

I wanted to avoid using the Blood Angels plastic kits as much as possible since removing the iconography and blood drops can be a real pain in the ass (as I discovered with Space Hulk). Nevertheless I picked up a couple of the Furioso kits for the weaponry that were included. Happily I was able to make eight weapon arms from the two kits as well as horde a selection of detail parts and armour plates before selling the carcasses on. I've loved the Venerable Dreadnought plastic kit since it was released last year and I wanted these to form the basis of my Furiosos. Particularly I wanted the open-helmet sarcophagi look to match the rest of my army and though there are only two different variant torso options enough variety can be achieved by adding a few bitz here and there.

The armour was basecoated in Mordian Blue before being highlighted up with Ultramarine Blue and Space Wolves Grey, while the bulk of shading was done with a watered-down Regal Blue mix. I decided to stick with blue to mark it out as being a Librarian but kept the hard edge highlighting and contrasting helmet to make sure it 'fits' with the rest of the Dead Suns. I've still got some way to go with him but I'm happy with the progress so far, and I already have ideas floating around in my skull for the next one. All I need to do now is to stop failing my psychic tests on a regular basis......

Roll With It

2010-11-25T02:38:00.004Z

For the foreseeable future all my 40k time will be taken up with Roll With It, an independent gaming club based in the East Midlands. All my new posts will be going up there so if you're interested click the link below;

http://www.rollwithit.org.uk

The Shitty Option

2010-11-20T00:04:00.003Z

Nobody ever takes twin-linked heavy flamers for their Razorbacks. You'd be hard pressed to see one in any gaming or hobby centre - they're extremely rare out there in the wild. Of course there's a few reasons for this - Games Workshop no longer provide a model (not even Forgeworld do an upgrade kit), there are better options available, but, most of all, its because its absolutely rubbish. The lascannon/twin-linked plasma gun is a deadly combination, twin-linked lascannons provide cheap long-range anti-tank firepower and assault cannons are effective against pretty much anything; So why did I just spend an evening of my life building, converting and painting a heavy flamer turret?

Well, primarily, for a laugh. Just because nobody ever does it. Dropping that 65 points of wasted plastic army onto the battlefield brought a few smiles (and probably tears) to players and onlookers alike. Competitive gaming is all well and good (and certainly has its place within the grand scheme of things) but sometimes I just want to have fun. I've never taken the game too seriously, and doing something a little different amuses my stunted concentration span.

I'm considering building a list utilising as many of the underused Codex units as possible. Something along the lines of a Master of the Forge leading an army comprised of Techmarines, Scouts with shotguns and Thunderfire cannons. I can just see my opponents now - the mix of bemusement, pity and surprise enveloping their frowning, stony game faces would be priceless.

People should make that transition from serious to breezy more often.

Celebrating The Three Thousand

2010-11-17T17:37:00.003Z

I've just surpassed the 3000 points worth of painted models milestone. I'll admit, it doesn't look like a great deal when they're all laid out en masse, but I suppose that's what you get with 'elite' armies like Marines or Eldar. 3000 points of Orks or Nids and I'd need a bigger table.....

If anyone would have told me when I started up in February that I would would be where I am now I wouldn't have believed them. In fact I wouldn't have thought I'd have even been capable of it. I'm inherently lazy and that's compounded by a short attention span. At times painting these has been tough going and I've wanted to throw the paint brush away, but the rewards far outweigh the pain. Being able to plonk this little lot down on the battlefield fills my heart the kind of geeky pride unattainable elsewhere. As Brian says, the odd compliment certainly doesn't do any harm either.

I envy those who can paint quickly and can paint well, but these guys mean as much as any to me.

Razorback #2

2010-11-09T20:06:00.005Z

As is typical I'm working against a deadline hampered by illness. Combat Fatigue is this coming weekend and I have two days to finish painting my forces. Karon thinks I'm a bit mad for putting myself under pressure by fielding a new army but it actually helps. I've been ill for almost 2 years now and some days are harder than others. It is strength-sapping, will-breaking and depressing shit, but the drive to get this stuff painted for Friday has kept me busy, and largely kept my head in the right place.

I've finished painting the second Razorback I need, with a kit-bashed twin linked heavy flamer armament. The heavy flamer was constructed using a Baal Predator flamestorm cannon, plus the fuel cells cut in half, green stuff and bits from a twin-linked assault cannon. Details were added using parts from my bitz box.

It just requires a final application varnish and it's all ready to go, leaving me with just a single Land Speeder Typhoon to do over the next two days. Considering the first one took me four days it's going to be tight, but if I can remain focused, and relatively stable, I'm confident I'll be able to pull it off.

Land Speeder WIP

2010-11-02T04:23:00.006Z

It quickly became evident that I wasn't going to ba able to get my Thousand Sons painted up in time for Combat Fatigue. I decided to use my marine army instead with the addition of some new units. Painting these additions should be possible within the 2 week period I have remaining before we leave. The good thing is this 500-point competition has given me the impetus to get cracking with one of my favourite Space Marine units - the land speeder. I've had these for a while and they've only ever been into a game once, facing Chris with their embarrassed grey-plastic nakedness. Hopefully that'll now change and for the last four nights I've been painting up the first of the typhoons.

Even though it's almost identical in appearance to the original 3rd edition plastic kit this new effort is much easier and pleasing to put together. I've actually had it assembled for a while set aside as I really hate painting vehicles but I persevered and gave it a black spray followed by a few base coats. This first stage was surprisingly quick, helped along the way by copious amounts of coffee and Hob Nob biscuits.

This next step took hours (and hours). Sometimes I question what I was thinking when I started this army, particularly that moment lay in the bath where I was thinking that painting stuff black would be easy? I highlighted every single panel edge and recess as per usual - I even highlighted the Recaro-lookalike seats despite the fact that they'll hardly be visible when assembly is complete. I think it's worth the time and effort though it's demoralising and fatiguing during the painting.

This evening I've got the crew put together and painted up and test fitted them for looks. I must admit I wasn't truly happy with the model until the pilot and gunner were seated. It's like flicking a switch to 'ON' - all of a sudden everything looks 'right'. All that is left to do is to apply decals, varnish and then fix the crew in position.

Oh, and then do another.....

Never Ending Story

2010-10-21T23:42:00.007+01:00

Some people hate cryptic or nonsensical blog post titles. Not that I care of course - I just type away at the latest musing emerging from my brain. If it catches someone's attention then its done its job. If it hasn't, then I'll just have to conceive something a little more interesting next time.

The Roll With It guys give me a bit (read: a lot) of stick for my stubborn insistence on using metal miniatures. In my own little world I'm on a never ending mission to prove to them that a 100% metal army is completely viable. ;) A couple of weeks ago I picked up the Space Marine Vanguard vets box, primarily for the relic blade-wielding marine with the intention on of turning him into a 'counts-as' Kor'Sarro Kahn. A hefty bit of conversion followed, replacing the torso part with the one from the Space Marine Commander kit (read more here) and this afternoon I got round to finishing off the paint job. The scheme is an extension of what I've already been employing but I've added in extra stages to the highlights. The Codex Grey hard edge highlights have been further extended with Fortress Grey and the cloth has been embellished with a little of the old Blood Angel Orange. While not particularly necessary it does make the mini stand up a little more upon closer examination.

October has been a fairly decent return as far as painting is concerned. 2/3 of the way in and I've managed 320 points so far with Kahn and the squad of Space Hulk Terminators. I'm off to take that up to around the 400 point mark now, and finally make a start on the lovely Rogue Trader land speeder I snagged on eBay recently. Next time snotlings.

Natural Born 'Nid Killers

2010-10-16T18:07:00.007+01:00

These guys have taken me a week, but they've been worth the effort involved. I think I've written it a million times but the sculpts on the Space Hulk terminators are awesome. In fact I'd say Space Hulk is worth it for these miniatures alone (though it's an outstanding game in its own right). I rarely field 'shooty' terminators as I normally prefer assault types but these are going straight into a list for use when Roll With It travel down to Dagenham tomorrow for day's gaming with the chaps from The Overlords. I don't care if they're useless - they look awesome anyway!

Painted Models Win More Games

2010-10-15T06:44:00.004+01:00

Painted models win more games - I've heard this phrase thrown around for 20 years. Initially I thought it was a mix of Games Workshop propaganda/incentive and urban myth. However the more I play the game the more I'm inclined to agree with it. The 40k hobby is a multi-faceted, complex beast. It's not merely two sweaty nerds playing with toy soldiers as can sometimes be the view from the outside. There's the collecting side of it, appealing to the hoarders amongst us, clambering for those minis that are more rarely seen. There's the modelers and painters, like myself, who get a massive buzz from seeing that mini go from an idea on grey plastic into a fully painted, based gaming piece. There's also the guys who have affection for the fluff and finally, the guys who love the game itself.

For me every component of the game is important. In fact one leads to the other and I can take enjoyment from every stage, but the one thing that always sticks out as the highlight is seeing two fully painted, well-modeled armies duking it out on a nicely laid-out table. Even after all these years the spectacle is still a delight and I think something unique to war gaming. Win, lose or draw the experience created and atmosphere absorbed is a memorable, enjoyable one.

Painted armies might not actually 'win' more games, but they sure as hell do make them enjoyable.

A Shameless Plug and WIP

2010-10-13T12:15:00.002+01:00

First up I've got a ton of stuff listed on eBay at the moment. I sorted through all my spare boxes and got the first lot listed, but will probably add more every day this week. I've listed everything starting at 99p so there's got to be a few bargains for sure. I won't see any of the cash however as all the proceeds will likely go back onto securing some old-style Vindicators.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/upsidedown98/m.html

I've also started work on converting a mini to use as as a 'counts-as' Kor'Sarro Kahn for my Dead Suns army. The basis of the conversion was the relic blade wielding vanguard veteran. I removed the torso using a razor saw and replaced it with the one from the Space Marine Commander plastic kit. The head came from the Space Wolves pack box. I really can't wait to get this guy painted! As soon as I'm finished up with this Space Hulk terminator squad Kahn will be the next job.

The Postman Brings Goodies

2010-10-07T12:28:00.004+01:00

The postman arrived this morning with three packages for me. Generally I try to avoid the temptations of eBay wherever I can but sometimes there is something I just cannot resist. Over the weekend I spotted some old metal miniatures that I've always loved and decided to put some bids in. I won all but one of the auctions and they were delivered today;

For the younger 40k players out there ;), they are (from left to right) a 2nd Edition metal Land Speeder, a 2nd Edition Space Marine Scout Sniper, a Rogue Trader Rhino rider and the brilliant Rogue Trader Land Speeder. The RT-era Land Speeder in particular was always a favourite of mine and I was so thrilled to finally be able to get one for a decent price. I will need to source a crew for the 2nd edition speeder at some point though. The previous owner had already stripped the paint from them - all I had to do was remove the old superglue residue, clean them down and reassemble them using a few pins, some green stuff and some decent glue. I'd forgotten how much of a pain in the arse the old models were as nothing ever seemed to fit right. It was worth the effort though as they're lovely models and I can't wait to get them on the tabletop.

Space Hulk Terminators - WIP

2010-10-04T02:02:00.004+01:00

It's funny, as I will rarely be using these guys but I'm loving doing them. I normally field assault Terminators so these will likely take a back seat and only come out on rainy days. Since getting the first 'test' mini painted last week I've started work on the rest of his squad. As before getting rid of the moulded bases was a tedious chore and involved hours and hours of careful cutting. I made some forced changes to Captain Lorenzo, replacing his torso with one from a regular Terminator box as his had a big chalice icon on the chest (he also has one on his shoulder pad but I can live with that). I also wanted to change his head, preferring to keep his head helmeted so I could continue the red stripe motif as featured on all the sergeants in my army. This also necessitated me replacing his crotch piece as well, substituting a cut down one from the same box the torso came from. I'll need to add a little green stuff prior to painting to hide the seam but it looks ok.

I've also been busy making some changes to my 1500 point list, inserting a second Land Raider and two more attack bikes. I got the Land Raider assembled tonight, and hopefully the attack bikes will come together tomorrow as they're going to get a test run Thursday evening down at Maelstrom.

Captain: Updated Pics

2010-10-01T03:40:00.005+01:00

Having signed up on the Warseer forums for the 'Tale of 40k Painters' blog the time has rolled around to show the finished projects for September. As I've just got the chance to take some decent pics of my Captain on bike I thought I'd pop them on here as well.

I'm also happy with how the Space Hulk terminator I posted up yesterday turned out as well, so I think I'll be finishing up another four of those guys next so I can field a full squad straight away. I also picked up another Land Raider this evening from Maelstrom so that's gone towards the front of the 'to do' pile as well.

Plundering Space Hulk

2010-09-30T05:46:00.003+01:00

I've made a start converting one of my sets of terminators from the 3rd Space Hulk box into my 40k Dead Suns army. This guy here is the first 'test' mini to be completed. I knew getting rid of the Blood Angel iconography was going to be difficult but it wasn't the most time consuming job. That honour fell to the tedious task of cutting away the moulded bases. I think the effort was worth it though as these minis are fantastic and I'm happy with how this one has turned out.

Can't wait to do the rest of his squad (if only it would stop raining so I can get some undercoating done!)

UK Team Challenge 2010

2010-09-30T03:31:00.003+01:00

The inaugural UK Team Challenge was held this past weekend at Maelstrom Games with 40 gamers competing in 10 teams vying for the UKTC crown. As regular readers may know my 40k club Roll With It entered a team into the tournament comprising of myself, Ross, Brian and Chris. As expected we pretty much got hammered and lost every round but we did take a lot of positives from the weekend. Firstly it was good experience for myself and Brian as both of us have been playing 40k for just 6 months. Playing much better players really helped us see what we *should* have done in various situations. Chris took the lion's share of the more difficult games, sacrificing himself for the team whilst Ross continued to amaze us and baffle us in equal measures as he would get tabled one game, win the next, tabled the next etc.

From a personal standpoint I really enjoyed it. I think I can see where to go next and getting advice from players far better than me was extremely helpful. In fact the other players' attitude overall during the weekend was exceptional. I witnessed no hissy fits, no arguments and no condescending comments - just forty players playing hard, wanting to win and more than happy to share their knowledge of the game. I must admit I hadn't expected everyone to be so friendly in a 'competitive' environment.

We've already decided as a club that we will return and enter once again next year - hopefully with two teams. By then we should all be better, more experienced players and as long as the atmosphere remains the same as this year, it'll be a ton of fun.

A full rundown of the weekend can be found on the Roll With It club site here.

Thousand Sons Combat Patrol

2010-09-24T05:58:00.005+01:00

I've been talked round into traveling down to London for a day's gaming to take place on a rainy, dreary November day. The tournament in question is Combat Fatigue - a combat patrol style event being organised and run by The Overlords club. Alongside myself and Brian no doubt there'll be a few more Roll With It guys in attendance too.

I've been consistently playing and painting the same army for the past few months, so it's time for a small detour. I'm taking the scenic route home this time. For a while I've considered building an alternative force to do on the side, even having gone so far as to start both Necron and Tyranid armies before selling them at a later date having lost interest. I needed something both interesting to look at and interesting on the table so eventually settled on a couple of squads of Thousand Sons each with Aspiring Sorcerers.

The fluff behind the Thousand Sons has always been a draw. They're squarely lumped in with the 'bad' crew yet their motives were sound. They don't really have mutations (kinda difficult when they don't actually have bodies) and generally don't fit in with the rest of the Chaos Marine nut-jobs. They're sat lost, somewhere between the loyalist Legion of The Damned and the rest of the renegade chapters from the Eye Of Terror. The colour scheme is, and always has been, awesome too. The Egyptian-styled theme is striking on the tabletop and will actually be a nice break from doing all that black.

So, at this evening's gaming session at Maelstrom Games I picked up a box to get started. Cellophane was eagerly torn away when I got home, furiously trying to get at the goodies inside. Woo! Four sprues of plastic components, a decal sheet, a bag of bases and a clamshell of metal bitz. Awesome sauce indeed. Normally I'm an advocate of metal miniatures however these were a pain in the arse. They're hybrid kits and the metal parts simply don't fit properly. Much swearing and cussing ensued as I had to cut and file away material to get the test mini put together. It's a good job it's only going to be a small army!

Next job - add some paint!

Does Competition Kill The Fun?

2010-09-22T02:27:00.003+01:00

As anyone who has read the odd post over the past few months will realise, my painting efforts have been directed at my army for the UK Team Challenge this coming weekend. Hopefully its going to be a fun, entertaining weekend but generally speaking is competition killing the fun?

Does anyone else out there get sick of seeing Land Raiders, Seer Councils, Nob Bikers and Lash Whips? When was the last time you saw a thunderfire cannon in a space marine army, or Necron Pariahs or Ork runtherds. The list could go on.

I'm probably going to enter another tournament in November - don't get me wrong I enjoy the competitive aspect too even if I'm just not very good. In the meantime however I want to field as many of the more neglected units as possible. I suspect the techmarine may be my first job next week and maybe even some honour guard as well as finishing up some new tactical squads. Possibly it would be nice to put out a 1500 point list with nothing but foot-slogging marines and no tanks for a change.

Anything for a bit of a change really, as I suspect when Sunday night rolls around my Librarian will be ready for a rest.

This Week I Painted A Land Raider

2010-09-21T08:51:00.002+01:00

Hardly inspiring I'm aware, though the title is slightly tongue-in-cheek and is the phrase Roll With It's resident Big Mek uses to refer to 95% of the 40k blog posts out there. Anyway, I finally got the Land Raider finished up, all wearing it's new frock ready for the party and here it is;

Too Many Projects On The Go?

2010-09-20T02:45:00.006+01:00

I'm sure I'm no different in my approach as any other hobbyist out there. I might not be able to match neither the painting peaks or the table top exploits of the more talented out there, but I've no doubt my habits are the same. How many modelers, and I mean broadly here - not just 40k, have more than one project on the go at any one time? I suspect that most people will have at least a couple. I know for a fact there are gamers who take years to finish a project, having flitted from one thing to another, before finally returning to the job they started.

My desk probably looks like any other gamer's setup from anywhere around the world - the combination of paint pots, bits of plastic and metal, some tissue paper, brushes and a lamp is a familiar sight. It's also like a gamer's security blanket. This is where I come away from all the shite that goes on elsewhere. I can take my time and relax in here, gander through iTunes and flick through a well-worn copy of White Dwarf. Therein lies the problem - in this little self-contained environment the creative senses start bubbling away and more ideas jump out screaming at you than ever before. I've always had a shocking memory so have taken to noting things down on my laptop or a notebook for future reference. The 'hobby room' as I call it is where my ideas are born and inspiration followed, and that's why there are always so many projects on the go. I can be in the middle of one thing and then, BOOM, something hits me and I'm off at a tangent.

For every new job taken, I seem to have completed one project though. My first Land Raider has recently been finished, taking me around 3 months to actually complete. My Venerable Dreadnought I purchased on release in March got made the same day, and finally got painted a couple of months later. Conversely my objective markers went from conception to realisation to completion in a few days. Sometimes it happens like that.

Hopefully all projects do finally see an end though. I've just about finished my tournament Space Marine list, have base coated a Thunderfire cannon, built some land speeders and tactical marines, undercoated a dozen bikes and started removing the Blood Angels icons from a set of Space Hulk terminators. I also have the 'Do I, Don't I' syndrome regarding Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

When all this will be finished is anyone's guess, but at least I'll still my hobby room to escape to.

Objective Markers

2010-09-16T17:14:00.004+01:00

I recently put together these five objective markers. Purposely designed for use in Space Marine games I guess they could actually be used in any game really. Three of them are based on the Space Marine casualties blister pack currently available from Games Workshop Direct. These finely detailed metal miniatures are really nice and I'd been looking for an excuse to use them for a while. The other two markers are made up from my bitz box, using parts from a variety of plastic kits and a few white metal parts. I think they stack up nicely against the metal minis. They've all been mounted on 40mm bases and had a green 'marker' arrow added to them for effect (sourced from Micro Art Studios). Looks nice and different.

For more details on how they were assembled and painted up check out our club site here.

Captain Fantastic!

2010-09-06T23:44:00.007+01:00

Roll With It ran it's first event last Thursday night over at Maelstrom Games. Strike Force was a combat patrol based tournament with a few added extras and it went down well with the attendees. Attendance was good and everyone had a great time playing 3 games during the evening. Congratulations to Dan for emerging the victorious commander.

All attention is now drawn to the UK Team Championship being held at the end of this month, also at Maelstrom's Eye Of The Storm venue. My list has now been submitted so I am now comitted to that lineup. My painting efforts have been rewarded and I'm nearing the end of my first 2000 points of this army. It's taken me 6 months to get this far, and all being well, I hope to add a further 2000 points in the next year.

I'm currently putting the finishing touches to my Space Marine Captain who will head up the force. The mini was bashed together using parts from numerous kits - head from the Space Wolves Pack box, torso front, lightning claw and backpack from the Commander box, bike and rider's robed legs from the Ravenwing Battleforce, storm shield from the Terminator Assault Squad box along with the purity seals and some detail parts from the Crusader upgrade sprue. Some fine jewelery chain was added to fashion a connection point for the storm shield.

I just have to finish the basing and touch up a few details and then he's good to go. That only leaves the Land Raider which is 95% done with only the sponsons and a final varnish being the only remaining jobs to do.

It's nice to be able to sit back and look at the painted models - some days I thought I would never get there and there's been a few occasions motivation has been difficult to find. Honestly I have to say that as much as I hated the painting at times (finding it both laborious and tedious) the effort has been 100% worth it.

Back From The Dead

2010-08-22T13:20:00.003+01:00

I can't believe its been two weeks since my last post - time flies. Lots has happened, but most of it not at the fun end of the spectrum. I did have some good news during my last hospital visit though - the last lot of biopsies can back fine so at least they can rule that side of things out. Trouble is I'm back at square one again and not entirely sure where we go from here. 16 months on and I feel no better, though it has to be said I don't feel any worse either. It's just always there.....

Back to the fun stuff - I've managed to get loads of 40k games in recently. Roll With It has been gaining members steadily for the past month so there's been more opportunity to get games more often. I'm currently playing three games a week and its helping me see where my game is currently at. The stupid mistakes seem to be dropping off and I think I'm a little less tactically naive than I was a few months back.

Also after weeks of farting around, picking my nose and general procrastination I've finally finished up the terminator assault squad. I'm pleased with the results, and as a unit they look really cool when deployed on the table with the librarian.

UKTC is up soon in a little under 5 weeks and I'm almost ready as regards to the painting. Everything is built. The land raider should be finished in the next couple of days which will just leave a couple of marines and two rhinos. I also need to build five objective markers so I have placed an order with Micro Art Studios and Games Workshop for parts - more to come on these soon.....

In Your Geek Den Nobody Can Hear You Scream

2010-08-08T15:45:00.004+01:00

After months of narrowly missing out on auctions (sometimes by just a few pennies) I have finally managed to secure myself a copy of the anniversary edition of Space Hulk. Sadly I was out of the loop when it was issued last year and eBay was really the only route to source a box. The price wasn't actually to bad in the end - I paid £70-something which is only a tenner or so more than the launch price so I'm quite happy with that. Expect to see a couple of Space Hulk related articles sometime soon.

It's been a productive hobby weekend - welcomed considering I had such a slack close to July. I've managed to finish off both the Whirlwind and the Vindicator for my Team Tournament list (varnish is drying as I type this), although I have tweaked the roster a little and given myself a bit more work to do in the process. I've also managed to secure some parts for my Ridge Racer restoration project. I'm fetching a topper box from a guy in Leeds tomorrow along with a couple of other bits and pieces. That should be pretty much all the parts I need so it's now a matter of getting it rewired, cleaned up ad put back together. Expect imminent updates on that too!

Multi-Part Mayhem

2010-08-04T02:17:00.008+01:00

August. Half the year has gone already. I haven't done much painting this past few days. I really need to get a move on as the deadline is now fast approaching. I've been busy emptying that big plastic tub that has been haunting me this past few months and getting on with some kit building.

I decided a few weeks back that I was going to build an entire battle company. The 5th company are designated by black shoulder trim and form one of the main battle forces of any Space Marine chapter. Each battle company is made up of 100 marines split into 10 squads - 6 tactical squads, 2 assault squads and 2 devastator squads. I had 22 tactical marines already finished and so I've spent the last couple of days assembling the remaining 38 required.

My first experience with marines goes back to the Space Crusade board game published by MB Games in 1990. The Citadel Miniatures supplied in this set were very basic snap fit assembly models moulded in bright colours (predictably blue for Ultramarines, horrifically red for Blood Angels and garishly yellow for Imperial Fists). Details weren't fantastic but they were functional and took minutes to put together the whole lot ready for battle in my bedroom.

Fast forward to 2010. Twenty years later and things have changed. The marines are now fancy multi-part kits with a multitude of options and configurations. Infinite combinations of legs, torsos, heads and wargear. Intricate details are lavished everywhere but at a price, and I don't mean the financial outlay. I actually assembled 40 marines today in two sessions (38 just didn't sound a good number). Consider that each marine is made up of a minimum of 11 parts - thats 440+ components that had to be snipped from their frames, cleaned of flash and mould lines, test fitted and finally glue into position.

Building a space marine no longer takes seconds - it take days.

Say Cheese!

2010-07-27T01:04:00.004+01:00

I wonder if the French say 'fromage'? I digress....

I've just put together a short tutorial on how to quickly take effective, good-looking photographs of miniatures. The end product is pictured below, but if you fancy knowing the process take a trip over to our club site for more details.

Librarian - in the bag!!

2010-07-25T23:49:00.005+01:00

Sods Law isn't it. I was just saying to my wife yesterday how well I'd been over the past 2 or 3 weeks and then I get hit bout a bout of sickness tonight. It wasn't one of the worst attacks but I lost 4 hours and I'm completely shattered, and certainly in no state to do any work.

I managed to get the grass applied to the librarian I've been working on though. It took me ages as my hands were shaking so much but I had a bit of help from Karon and we got it done. I'm very pleased with how he looks and I do think he's one of the best miniatures I've painted to date. I think my highlights are getting better and my paint consistency is certainly improving.

I might make a start on the vindicator tonight if I feel up to it. It isn't as intricate as a figure so should be a little more straight forward. I'm more excited to the tournament more every day. To be honest I'm a little frightened of making myself look like a tit. It's not that I mind losing, it's more I don't want to be tabled at the end of turn 2. Hopefully with this being a team based tourney there will be players of all abilities and experience. This is my first experience of competition - I never played competitively at all during my initial 10 years with the game - and I'm looking forward to it being an enjoyable one.

Tight Deadlines

2010-07-25T04:17:00.007+01:00

As any regular reader will know, I don't sleep too much. Maybe 3-4 hours a day, and some days not at all. My doctor says it isn't healthy. I do get quite a bit of painting done at night though. It's nice and quiet - wife has gone to bed, dog is asleep on my feet. It's peaceful and truthfully that's the only time I can concentrate. Tonight I've been working on my librarian as he's going to be the HQ choice for the team tournament in September.

I really need to get a move on with getting these guys finished, now that I've 99% finalised my army list. My librarian is a couple of hours work from done, but there's a lot more to do;

Land Raider Crusader (built)
Terminators x 6 (built)
Bike (built, undercoated)
Whirlwind (almost finished, just need to do the launcher)
Vindicator (built, undercoated)
Space Marines x 3 (on sprues)

I need to have them ready for the 24th September - easy for most people I guess, but it will be some effort for me. I have eight full weeks to accomplish this so I should be able to do it, but I can't fall behind. I know if I do that then I'll have to rush and the finish will be poor and I'll be unhappy with them. The Land Raider and Terminator squad are the biggest job - I estimate that's a couple or three weeks work there and all of a sudden we've only got 5 weeks left. I'm also on holiday for three weeks during this period, so 2 weeks left. Whirlwind I can do in a day, Vindicator probably three days with the bike and marines taking the best part of a week. That's assuming my motivation is up and my health is good, so it's going to be tight.

OK, let's get cracking.....

Tina

2010-07-21T02:30:00.004+01:00

For the first time in a very long time I've finished a mini in one sitting. It's a little rough around the edges but quite passable on the tabletop (especially as I'm not a great painter). It's a Rasputina from Wyrd's Malifaux. It's a little side project to my 40k army, and it makes a nice change from painting power armour and boltguns.

I haven't decided exactly how I'm going to base here yet, but it will most probably be snow-themed. The great thing about Malifaux is that you don't need a bazillion miniatures to play a game, so it's ideal for small tables and short periods of time.

You can view more pics of Tina at our club site here.

Tactical Squad: Incoming

2010-07-19T03:22:00.009+01:00

For a third consecutive sleepless night (ever seen The Machinist?) I've endeavoured to haul my way through this big tub of lifeless grey plastic. I've just finished up a new tactical squad and am really happy with their finish. I'm only just getting used to batch painting, and I painted this unit in 3 nights, which is somewhat of a record for me.

Described many as dull, boring units, tactical squads are nevertheless the basic building blocks of a marine force. Head over to our club site to see my thoughts on this, and more.

Can't Sleep, Won't Sleep - The Psyker

2010-07-17T07:06:00.005+01:00

Well I can't sleep. I've been lay here in bed wide awake for the past 4 hours - it's now 7am. My head is full of weird things at the best of times but at the moment the immediate dilemma is - do I field a librarian as my HQ or not. At 7am. On a Saturday morning. I know the past week or so has been 40k-centric - got three games in, helping to get the new club, Roll With It, off the ground and painting the 1500 point army needed for the team tournament - but still, it's 7am. On a Saturday morning.

Usually when I get a bee in my bonnet I have to deal with it before it will go away, so I've been thinking over the librarian selection for the past few hours in the hope that I may yet get some sleep like a normal person. I must admit I'm not fully comfortable with their rules yet as I've never used them (even during 2nd/3rd ed) but psykers have given me a lot of grief over the past few games. Swainey's Eldar farseer hammered me two games running with Fortune and Doom, Scott's Imperial Guard kept reducing the Ld of my terminators to 2 and I even got done over by an Ork weird boy at one point. Oh, and I won't mention Chaos. Again.

It seems to me there are two obvious ways to combat this psychic threat - kill the psyker quickly or block the attacks. Since the former option usually involves committing multiple valuable units I'm going to attempt to block the attacks with a librarian's psychic hood. Possibly by kitting him out wearing a car (terminator armour) and hiding him in a land raider. Those Orks will have to bring a large can opener this time. Sure, it'll still boil down to the luck of a dice roll whether it is successful or not but at least it will give me a chance. Or at least that is the plan for now.....

Roll With It - a 40K gaming club blog

2010-07-15T01:02:00.004+01:00

Roll With It is the newest, most relaxed gaming club in the East Midlands welcoming gamers of all abilities and experience. The website has just gone 'live', the forums are open and we're ready for some fragging.

Why not drop by our forums to see what we have to offer?

www.rollwithit.org.uk

Victory!

2010-07-13T23:45:00.004+01:00

Finally my long-running losing streak has come to an end. My Dead Suns Space Marine army went up against fellow Roll With It gamer Chris Swaine's Eldar army in a 1500 point battle. It was a great game, and could have gone either way for a long time with some lucky (and unlucky) rolling on both sides of the table.

The MVP award must go to the terminator squad. Mounted in a land raider crusader these guys stepped into an ongoing assault involving Swainey's jetseer council and a squad of marine bikes. Ultimately the weight of power fist attacks made the difference and that was the Eldar down to 2/3 strength. Hopefully I can build some sort of winning streak now.....

Daunting Prospects?

2010-07-08T23:23:00.006+01:00

Something hit me (like a shovel) during our bi-weekly gaming session at Maelstrom Games this evening. We were discussing army build options and it occurred to me exactly how many marines I have. Far more than I will ever use in fact. I know I've always been an impulse buyer but to be honest this is a little ridiculous. How did I get to this stage?

I haven't actually bought any new kits in three weeks and been spending most of my time painting. Most of the unbuilt stuff is stuff that I purchased while we were waiting to move house. Basically everything bought between December and April was taken home, unwrapped and stuck in a plastic tub for a rainy day. It's frightening how quickly this crap accumulates. This is what there is awaiting me;

21 metal figures
4 Landspeeder
12 Terminators
22 Bikes
4 Attack Bikes
2 Ironclad Dreadnoughts
10 Assault Marines
2 Rhinos
1 Drop Pod
1 Land Raider
1 Whirlwind
15 Scouts
2 Scout Bikes
5 Sternguard
plus around 100 Space Marines

Quite frankly it's embarrassing. I've already listed the scouts on eBay as I know I will never use them and will probably get rid of quite a few more as well. The good thing is I will probably never have to buy any more space marines again in my life, except for new units. However the prospect of painting this big plastic tub of bits is daunting to say the least. I've heard stories about how hobbyists are put off by the mountains of grey plastic, draining all motivation and sucking the enjoyment out of what is essentially a fun past time. I can see what they meant now. I've decided I will combat it by hiding the tub. Yes, the tub is going to be stashed away somewhere where I am not going to see it daily and remove one kit at a time and see it through completion from build to paint. I probably have enough to last me a year so at least I can't complain I have nothing to do.

I'll leave you with a few simple things you can do to keep up your motivation - hope it helps!

Work on one unit at a time, and see them through to completion before starting another.
Keep the piles of grey plastic hidden away to prevent discouragement.
Pick and army and stick to it. Don't flit from one to another. You'll never finish any army.
Find somewhere peaceful and relaxing to work in.
Most importantly, remember it's just for fun.

Give it away, give it away, now!

2010-07-07T04:11:00.004+01:00

Big day at the hospital today. Yet more tests. Yay. I've had more things stuck in me than a cheap whore at a Viagra convention. Wish me luck.....

I've tossed this picture around for the past year or so on various forums and sites yet it still brings a smile to my face. It pains me to say that this mini arcade cabinet is currently sat up in the attic, missing controls, speakers and covered in an ever-increasing layer of dust and spider shit. I've decided that rather than let it wallow in the cobwebs I'm going to put it all back together, finish it off and give it away, possibly by auction with 100% of the proceeds going to Children In Need later this year.

It was built last Summer, part experiment, part testing the water. It's based on a old Megadrive II system which was decased and installed in the cab, with cartridges being loaded from the front. It took me about a month and cost around £300 to make, factoring in the costs for the LCD monitor and controls. It's half full size, standing around 3' tall and small enough to transport in even the smallest hatchback.

Sadly, the fact is I'm not going to use it - it may as well go to someone who will.

Painting the Dead Suns

2010-07-06T05:40:00.023+01:00

I know my limits when it comes to miniature painting. I decided fairly early on in my return to 40k that the army I was going to build had to be quick and simple to paint, yet look half decent in the field. I took a basic palette of colours and painted up a few models in various colours before settling on this scheme that would eventually become the Dead Suns.

I work on the premise that for every colour there are three key components; basecoat, wash, highlight. By sticking to this idea and using the same palette there is a conformity and unity across the whole army whether it be a marine, a tank or a dreadnought.

Stage 1 - Preparation

Components are removed from the sprue and rinsed with a little washing up liquid to get rid of any mould release agent. All mould lines are then removed with a sharp hobby knife and the miniature is assembled using polystyrene cement. I usually leave off weapons and backpacks to allow easy access to areas difficult to paint. In this case I mounted the backpack and boltgun onto cocktail sticks to make them easy to handle whilst working on them.

Stage 2 - Undercoat

Once assembled and cleaned up the model is given an undercoat of Citadel Chaos Black. I use the spray cans as a) they're ready mixed and b) readily available. Since the undercoat also serves as the basecoat I touch up the sprayed coat with a brushed on thinned-down Chaos Black, ensuring a complete, even coverage.

Stage 3 - Basecoats

All the metallic parts are given a flat coat of Boltgun Metal. Any areas that will end up being white are painted Astronomican Grey while purity seals and parchments are painted Mechrite Red and Dheneb Stone respectively. Any leather parts are painted Calthan Brown. These are all Foundation paints and are brilliant for basecoats but need to be thinned down a little. They'll cover the black undercoat in one application saving loads of time. Eye lenses are then painted Snot Green.

Stage 4 - Washes

Citadel washes are the best thing that Games Workshop produces today. They can make even the most average painter look competent. As they're applied they pool in the miniature's recesses giving natural shading effects. Metallic areas are washed with Badab Black, Astronomican Grey and Mechrite Red with Asurmen Blue, Dheneb Stone with Gryphonne Sepia and Calthan Brown with Devlan Mud. Metallic bits are given a second wash with Devlan Mud.

Stage 5 - Highlighting

Highlighting involves painting thin layers onto only the most raised surfaces and edges, creating the illusion of light hitting the surfaces. Metallic areas are highlighted with Mithril Silver, Calthan Brown is highlighted with Snakebite Leather and Snot Green is highlighted with a dot of Goblin Green. Blood Red and Bleached Bone are used for the purity seals and parchments. White is applied to the Astronomican Grey parts (helmet and aquila). Finally, all the armour is edged in Codex Grey.

Stage 6 - Finishing Off

I take the odd option of going for a gloss finish to my models. After the varnish is dry PVA glue (white glue/wood glue) is applied to the base with an old brush, before dipping it into a pot of mixed fine gravel and slate chips. After it has dried it is given a Devlan Mud wash followed by drybrushes of Codex Grey and Bleached Bone. Finally when all that is dry Scorched Grass is attached sparingly in clumps using PVA.

Dead Suns background, new razorback

2010-07-05T21:53:00.008+01:00

For me what has always stood Games Workshop's systems apart from the others was the background noise. The heroic characters, cataclysmic events, epic struggles and the fight between good and evil always intrigued me. Whether it be a Terminator squad stalking down the eerie corridors aboard a derelict Space Hulk or the Waaaagh cry of a demented, drugged and truly crazy Ork warboss there is always something that captures the imagination.

Seeing as the Dead Suns are my own creation, their history is there to be written. A blank slate ready to be filled with heroic deeds, noble gestures and desperate tragedy. Now despite me having studied English Literature for years, both at college and university, I am no writer. An analyst or a philosopher I can be, but I'm not a story teller. However a kind soul who goes by the user name of 'Brother Alexos' on the Warseer forums volunteered a few paragraphs of back story. Huge thanks to him for that. I hope to spend the next few weeks eking out the details, adding in some characters, as well as traits and history.

"The planet Salek, located in Segmentum Solar's southwestern region, breeds some of the most steadfast, stubborn Marines in the galaxy. It is said that a Marine made on Salek will not move from his position, no matter the circumstances. Imperial Guardsmen, which served with the Dead Suns chapter in the cleansing of Vourruk, often remark that not even an armoured assault could shift a squad of them. They were proved right. Ten space marines of the Dead Suns chapter faced against an armoured Legion, consisting of an estimated 50 tanks, and they achieved a 5:1 kill ratio, in their favor.

The planet Salek produces marines that are indifferent to changes in their environment. This is so because, at the heart of their system, lies a Black hole. It feeds off of the System's star, making the star give off a ghastly, dark purple. The planet Salek goes through two periods of year, the Emperor's Light and The Dark. During the Emperor's light, the world is a peaceful world, and the Tribesmen there prosper, hunting their fill and relaxing in this brief time of peace. During the Daemonic Dark, the Black Hole is directly between the Sun and Salek, making the world completely black. This is when the tribes fight, and gigantic, gruesome creatures stalk the now barren lands.

This ensures that the people are used to extreme changes in environment. One part of the year, a tribe may be protected from the creatures of the Dark by high mountains, only for those mountains to crumble the next year, drawing the creatures in. On the battlefield, they show a similar indifference to the changing environment. It is both a weakness and a strength.

On Serith Prime, the Dead Suns showed bravery, pitting 100 marines against the brunt of WAAAGH! Star Crushaz. They fended off a total of 15 warbands, five Gargants, and a dozen stompas with few casualties. But on other planets, their weakness shows.

During the Scouring of Elthia Secundus, a whole company of troops with a complement of an Imperial Guard Superheavy Battlegroup and four Thunderhawks were completely destroyed by a Dark Eldar Cabal after the Dead Suns' commander was killed. They were not ordered to change their battleline, and were completely surrounded.

The Dead Suns are a study in the two sides of Bravery: Bravery and Foolishness. Where they are brave enough to stand no matter what is thrown at them, their foolishness shows itself when they can't show enough tactical flexibility to counter more subtle foes."

The idea of a hard-as-nails but flawed chapter is hardly new, but it fits with what was already in my head and fits well with their look. The black hole is also intriguing, and no doubt there's stuff I can add here. I'll be posting updates to this on my blog, as well as trying to establish a time line of events. Should be fun.

On the painting front I finished another 75 points this morning (4am-ish). The second Razorback is identical to the first, but I did alternative cupolas, one with optics and one with an open hatch with exposed driver. See you soon!

Beer + Plastic = Profit?

2010-07-05T01:55:00.007+01:00

Saturday and Sunday were beastly warm days. I do most of my painting in the conservatory but it was far too warm to even sit in there, let alone work. I had a look through my big plastic tub of unbuilt crap and decided I'd better pull my finger out my ass and get something done....

I sat in the garden, with a nice cold beer of course, and assembled six new tanks and transports; four Razorbacks, a Predator Annihilator and a Vindicator. I also cobbled together various crew, drivers, gunners, closed hatches and weapon mounts designed to be interchangeable between any of the chassis. Three hours, four beers and a pint of perspiration later I have half a dozen new models ready for undercoating, but that will have to wait until tomorrow as I've just run out of black spray. Nothing more dull than seeing lumps of grey plastic so here's an Assault Marine I prepared earlier;

On the subject of having projects on the go that I need to get to grips with..... I have a Namco Ridge Racer deluxe sit-down in the garage, all stripped and ready for a rebuild. This thing is a monster, with a 33" monitor, clutch pedal and 6-speed shifter. Even the game PCB cage is the size of a small country. Problem is I've been so preoccupied with getting the 40k army ready I haven't had chance to get in there and make a start on it. As soon as I'm up to the 2000 painted models target Ridge Racer is definitely the next job. Definitely.

40k Attack Bike

2010-07-01T23:50:00.006+01:00

Bleh, my last post was too serious. Valid, no doubt, but serious. So, from the sublime to the ridiculous. :) In the far future where there is only war, where man struggles for his very survival against the evil, twisted forces of Chaos, we still field soldiers on motorbikes. Yes, 38,000 years into the future technology has progressed so far that we are still using handlebars, sidecars and brake levers. Halfords must still be in business. Awesome. However, it does give us chance to get our hands on these lovely Space Marine Attack Bike kits. Standard Dead Suns paint scheme (I'll have to post a step-by-step one day) and finished with a flocked 60mm base. *geek alert* Highly mobile Multi-Melta tank busting goodness!! :)

New Beginnings

2010-07-01T23:34:00.007+01:00

Before January this year I hadn't played 40k in over 12 years (I sold off everything when we bought our first house in 1998). It was only because of my illness and having time off work that I got back into it. To be honest I'm not even sure what reignited my interest, but I was in Chesterfield one day visiting my better half at work and wandered into the Games Workshop store. The manager there was extremely helpful and I left with several jam-packed carrier bags full of goodies (and a lighter wallet)! I'm glad I did as I've met many new friends over the past six months and had countless enjoyable evenings having laughs and a few beers with like-minded people.

I play regularly at Maelstrom Games in Mansfield. They have a great set-up; shop, gaming hall, painting area, bar, (soon to be) restaurant. If somewhere like this had existed 10 years ago I probably would never have given up the hobby at all.

I played this evening. I lost. I don't care, it was a good game and at the end of the day (cliche alert) that is all that really matters. Don't give up the things you like because it's not cool. Enjoy them while you can. Enjoy it before it's too late, whatever it is.

Update: 40k Razorback and Sergeant Lucius

2010-07-01T15:07:00.007+01:00

Phew! The varnish dried ok, though it will need another coat. Too humid outside today though so it will have to wait until later. I managed to finish the other parts off last night and this morning, as well as put the final touches to the squad it's attached to.

The sergeant is a converted Assault on Black Reach miniature. These are the (largely) one piece miniatures that come in the starter boxes but they they can still be customised with a little thought. To fit the theme of the Dead Suns, this guy has had his bare head removed and replaced with a standard helmet, while the hand with pointing finger has been replaced with a bolt pistol, giving the appearance of taking aim. The hand swap was a doddle but the head was a bit of a pig as large amounts of plastic had to be removed. As the collar on these miniatures is moulded it had to be cut away and then a recess drilled into the torso for the neck to sit in.

Total so far; 1217 points painted. Another 783 required....

40k Razorback W.I.P.

2010-06-30T17:10:00.005+01:00

I've spent the last week trying to get my army to a 'completed' stage so I can enter tournaments. First one up is a team tournament in September and I'm half way to my goal of 2000 points. I reckon I need to average 1 unit a week between now and the end of August to reach my goal, with 1 unit being a transport, tank, troops squad, etc. It shouldn't be too stressful.

The problem is today (and the past few days) it's been too hot to spray stuff. Using aerosols in hot and humid weather and can be a bit of a lottery. Problems such as the paint drying before it hits the model are prevalent, leading to a 'beading' or 'ashy' effect. I needed to get a Razorback armoured transport tank varnished today so I waited for a bit of cloud cover outside before I did it. Hopefully it'll dry out ok.

I normally brush varnish onto foot models or walkers, but with tanks it really needs to be sprayed to ensure a good, even coating. I'm trying Vallejo's Brilliant Gloss varnish aerosol since I've heard so many good things about it, and it should be plenty durable enough to protect the models for gaming use.

I'll see how it dries this evening and try and get the other parts finished (cupola, pintle-mounted storm bolter and twin-linked assault cannon turret). The weapons will actually be interchangeable allowing me to field this as a Razorback with a variety of armaments or even as a Whirlwind.

Dead Suns Dreadnought

2010-06-28T19:13:00.003+01:00

I bought this Venerable Dreadnought kit when the new plastics were released a few months ago. I actually built it the same day, but it's taken until this week to get round to painting it. This completes my 1st 1000 points of painted Marines. I'm entering my first tournament in September so my aim is to have 2000 points ready for that (painted armies are a requirement). I'm half way there!

It's an excellent kit to make and the variety of possible builds is good as the box contains tons of useful elements and alternative parts. The only bits I added to it were the purity seals on the left shoulder and the upside down Dark Angels icon on the right shoulder. These came from the Crusader upgrade sprue and Ravenwing Battleforce box respectively. The colour scheme is my by-now-standard gloss black with Codex Grey highlights, white aquila and Boltgun Metal detailing.

Is a MAME cab expensive?

2010-06-26T23:58:00.010+01:00

Look over eBay's 'Coin-Operated' category on any given week and chances are you will come accross a 'MAME' cab. These are usually old JAMMA arcade cabinets with the internals removed and housing a PC running the MAME software and hundreds of ROMs. Sadly the poor folk that buy these generally don't have a clue and are paying daft money for something worth a fraction of the cost. Here's the story of how mine came to be;

I picked up a Silverline JAMMA cab on eBay late in 2009, located not too far away in Barnsley. I didn't particularly want, or need the cab, but included with it were a bunch of PCBs. One of them was R-Type, a rare, expensive (£150ish) beast that I'd been after for a while. I put in a bid of £200 and won it. I sold on the other four PCBs that came with it and made my £200 back plus a bit more, while the monitor went in another of my cabs. Basically I'd gained a monitor, an R-Type PCB and an empty JAMMA shell for free and made £50 on top. MAME has never been my kind of thing (I'll leave the legalities of it for another day) but I thought I'd turn this cab into a MAME machine, with a vertically mounted monitor for older classics such as Scramble, Juno First and Commando. People buy MAME machines because they envisage them to be complex, awkward projects and don't fancy tackling it themselves . The reality is that all that is required is a little time and patience.

The monitor came off eBay for 99p (yes, that's less than a £1) and the donor PC came from a friend on the JAMMA+ forums, also a freebie. The sticks and buttons were spares from a previous restoration job and the amplifier came out of an old set of PC speakers from my mother. The only thing I had to purchase was an iPac (USB interface for connection of arcade sticks and buttons to a PC). It's a simple case of getting all the necessary components together and following the build in a logical order. It's really not a difficult job and help can be found across the internet very easily.

As for the total cost? I ended up £18 better off than when I started the project. Do it yourself. It's more fun, you'll enjoy it, and you'll appreciate it more in the end. In fact, forget all I said. Get yourself a proper JAMMA cab, some PCBs and do it properly. You really *will* appreciate it more. :)

Gizmo!

2010-06-25T12:22:00.006+01:00

It's all looking good. Newly crowned World T20 champions England are giving the Aussies a bit of a bashing in the cricket, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button sit side-by side atop the Formula 1 rankings and even the England football team managed to avoid embarrassment of Italian/French proportions by scraping through to the last-16 of the World cup and set up a potentially exiting tie against the 'ol Germans. Penalty shoot out on Sunday afternoon it is then. More importantly however, the weather is awesome. It's been a good Spring/Summer in general but it's really nice at the moment and seeing as we have a 14 week old puppy, the perfect chance to get him used to going out in the garden.

As you can no doubt tell, he's a Shih-Tzu, and he is Gorgeous (with the upper case G). Now, I've never been one for little dogs but this little guy has changed my mind. Full of energy and life his only real desire is to play. And I'm jealous :) Since we moved house a couple of months back we only live a few minutes from town. However if Gizmo is with us it is a half an hour walk. He stops for everyone, and because he's so cute and playful, generally everyone stops for him. As far as he is concerned everyone is his friend, and every pair of hands is a potential belly rub. He's irresistible.

Operation Wolf

2010-06-23T14:33:00.005+01:00

We had our house-warming party last Saturday night. As expected the garage-turned-arcade went down a treat with many people spending a good few hours in there. 14 of the 17 cabs were playable on the night including Space Invaders, Point Blank, Hang On and a Neo Geo. One of the biggest draws and a definite crowd pleaser was my latest addition - Operation Wolf.

Originally released in 1987 by Taito this was one of *the* games to play when I was a kid, and the sheer bulk and spectacle of the cab was enough to set any 10 year old drooling. It wasn't the first cab with a mounted machine gun by any means, but it was the first to really do it well. Hard as hell though, and I still can't finish it on one credit even now. The final airport stage is rock hard, even on normal difficulty.

Random picture #1

2010-06-23T01:09:00.000+01:00

I took this picture years ago. Well before Transformers were 'cool' again. It's a shame Michael Bay ripped the heart out of the original story but I guess that's the modern movie industry's lack of new ideas fault there. Who'd have thought you'd ever see Minicons doing the Y.M.C.A.?

Sadly I sold these little guys ages ago. Wish I'd kept them in the end. :(

Post #1, 40k Chaplain

2010-06-23T00:43:00.002+01:00

Soooooooo, welcome to my blog. A collection of the interesting things in my life that only *I* find interesting. Anything, something and nothing. I always said I wouldn't create a blog, for reasons that shall become clear later on, but here I am, typing away in the dark.....

So what's happened this week? Not a lot, but I did manage to get a new miniature painted for my Warhammer 40k Space Marine army, The Dead Suns. I am an awfully slow painter. So slow in fact that I end up wasting a hell of a lot of paint as it dries on the palette... Anyway, here is my new Chaplain, in all his 28mm glory;

I'm really happy with how he turned out, which is somewhat of a rarity for me. I even installed magnets in the left shoulder and backpack so I can change his weapons loadout from game to game. I really wish I could get more painted, more quickly, but it looks like I'll just have to settle with churning out 3-4 miniatures a week.